Reeder Custom Guns - .44 Magnum vs .454

As we all know, the .44 is a powerful handgun round and is the cartridge all other handgun cartridges are judged by.
Other than increased gun size, more cost, more recoil and muzzle blast just what advantages does the .454 offer vs. the .44 magnum? Thinking backwoods hiking/camping and hunting.

Do you need that much performance to lug around? The gun is lots heavier and while it can shoot .45 Colt, or any load up to hand numbing .454's, what are you wanting to do? If I was worried about Bears I could justify the added power of the .454. If I wanted to carry a powerful gun and not really think about it I'd get a nice shorter DA or SA in .44 Magnum.

Are you a .45 guy? I'm a .44 boy and really dislike the .454 recoil and blast, personally. If I want that much power I move up to a .475 or .510. They are actually LIGHTER than a .454, bigger hole!

bear country the 44 Mag will do pretty much anything you need done. If you figure the "power" of a 454 as opposed to the 44, the 454 is about twice, but the recoil is at least twice. Personally I hate the 454. I would rather shoot the 475 or my 510 any day. The 454 knows where your nose is and heads that way, whereas the 475 and 510 may end up pointed straight up but they don't target your face.

There have been days here when I had to shoot 3 or 4 revolvers in 454, usually 10 to 12 in each gun and usually at one sitting and I hated every minute of it. I liken it to the 500 S&W or 500 Maximum in a lightweight revolver. Both are brutal and eventually do damage to your hand, wrist and elbow. A lot of years shooting the big boomers, sometimes 1000 to 1200 a week has done a lot of damage to my right hand. Two surgeries to my hand and it still isn't back to normal. And I know some on here will poo poo what I just said about the 454 recoil and say they can shoot 50 rounds at one sitting. All I can say to that is, have at it boy. The hand surgeons need the business.

Man have I hurt myself with unprotected elbows! In emergency I use my wallet as a pad. I’m rough on bags too! My .300 GNR surgically cut a leather bag right in half and threw rice all over. It would do the same to your hand. Another time at HHC I blinded myself for a few moments resting my .429 GNR aside an Oak for support. The shot de-barked the tree and put it in my spectacled face!

Got to think first.

Mine is still nerve damaged.

I was resting it on a little sandbag on the hood of his Chevy pickup. When I got done shooting I noticed the big fan-shaped black area in front of where I had been shooting. It burned the paint and never did come off.

When I was young I loved the 454. It was the hottest revolver going at the time. Paco and I did crazy stuff with them. When I entered my 60's I realized my wrists and fingers .. while a little beat up ... still worked OK. John Taffin and other friends had already had surgeries on their hands. I decided to quit the hard recoiling sixguns and sold and traded them off.

Ordered mine at the Freedom Arms counter in Wyoming from Susie Taylor so many years ago and would load a coffee can full of factory equal loads and shoot 100 yards all day...Now... the a FA`s 41 mag is my new hero... [image]

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back out of a scheduled elephant hunt next May. It had been on my bucket list forever along with a Cape Buffalo. I have taken the Cape Buffalo and the hand was giving me trouble even then but I only had to shoot 2 rounds of my 450 GNR hot loaded with the 500 grain Hornady DGX bullet, one to drop him and another for insurance.

My two surgeries were this past early August and I wasn't real sure I could even use the hand for the HHC in 2 months. I managed to shoot a big Watusi on the HHC but my hand stung and ached for a week afterward. I had planned the elephant hunt back in 2017 but with the surgeries upcoming it became doubtful. Late last summer right after the surgeries and on John Abraham's recommendation I started working on designing a new cartridge for the elephant hunt. John told me I would need a lot more punch to put a big elephant bull down. I came up with the 50-110 case necked to 416. John said the 416 bullet would penetrate better than the 500 grain .458 bullet. So the 50-110 necked to 416 became the 417 GNR. I sent Sean Harper, my good friend and my ballistician, the new barrel, bullets and brass and he worked up a load doing right at 2300 fps with the 400 grain Hornady DGS. He mentioned the recoil was really rough. That made me have second thoughts.

About 2 weeks ago John flew to the states to visit his sons and almost every night I spent a lot of time talking to him about the elephant hunt. Finally, with the hand not getting any better I told John to cancel the elephant hunt. I don't need any more damage to my right hand and I sure don't need a wounded, pissed off bull elephant running around tearing up villages. I already have another Cape Buffalo hunt coming up in May ( the taxidermy company lost my big Cape Buffalo mount so they are paying for another hunt), so I am going to work on getting the hand ready for that. I will probably stay with my 450 GNR for that hunt as I did on the first one.

The gist of this long rambling story is none of us are invincible not matter what you think. Take care of your hands. If you need to shoot the big boomers, keep it to a small amount at a time. And wear shooting gloves. That doesn't make you a pussy if you do. That just makes you a smart shooter.

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Karamojo! (Likely not legal now)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._D._M._Bell

my inspiration to shoot big animals with small bullets. That being my 41 GNR and the 210 grain silhouette bullet. He specialized in putting a small bullet in exactly the right spot and killed over 1000 elephant by doing so. And you right, what Bell did would be illegal these days and rightfully so.

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When I first got mine I took it to a friends farm with a 20 round box of Hornady XTP. We split the box at 10 each, that was enough for one session for both of us.

... make me mighty thankful I'm using that large "mass!"

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I’ve had about 3 different ones and they all shot heavy colt loads in 454 brass great. Never needed full power or even tried any.

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